Petri, Olaus (Olof Petersson)
(1493-1552) and Laurentius (Lars Petersson) (1499-1573) Swedish reformers
The brothers were born at Orebro, and Olaus studied at Wittenberg (1516-18), where he was taught by luther and Philipp melanchthon. He returned to Sweden as a teacher, supported the breach with Rome in 1527, and helped to produce the first Swedish New Testament (1526) and liturgies (1529, 1531). He became a favorite of King Gustavus Vasa and was made chancellor (1531-33) but he fell out with the king and in 1540 was condemned to death for treason. This sentence was commuted to a fine. He later became pastor of the principal church (the Storkyrkan) in Stockholm.
Laurentius became the first Protestant archbishop of Uppsala in 1531. He and Olaus were chiefly responsible for the Swedish Bible (the Gustavus Vasa Bible) of 1541. Laurentius’s book on church order (1571) helped to make the Swedish church less subject to the state than other Lutheran churches.
Petrucci, Ottaviano
(1466-1539) Italian music printer Petrucci was probably educated at the court of Guidobaldo I, Duke of Urbino. Around 1490 he went to Venice and in 1498 the doge granted him the exclusive right to print measured music. Until then only chant had been printed in Germany and Italy, but Petrucci’s new method meant that polyphony could be printed from type; in his first publication, Harmonice musices odhecaton A (1501), a collection mainly of French chansons, the new process is used. This entailed three impressions—one of staves, one of notes, and one of the text. In 1507 Petrucci published lute tablature. In 1511 he returned to his native Fossombrone and continued to print music, obtaining a privilege from Pope Leo X to print mensural music and organ tablature in the Papal States. Back again in Venice from 1536 he printed Latin and Italian classical texts. Petrucci’s success meant that the works of composers such as Josquin des pres and Jacob obrecht were widely disseminated in their day.
Peurbach, Georg
(1423-1461) Austrian mathematician and astronomer
Educated in Vienna and Italy, Peurbach began his career as court astrologer to Ladislaus V of Hungary. He was appointed later to the chair of mathematics and astronomy at Vienna. Much of Peurbach’s short life was devoted to the study of the Almagest (see ptolemaic system). With Cardinal bessarion he planned to obtain an accurate copy of the Greek text, but died before he could even begin the project. He did succeed in drafting the first six topics of his Epitoma in almagestum Ptolemei, a work completed by his pupil regiomontanus, and managed to finish his Theoricarum novarum planetarum; this elementary survey of planetary astronomy served as a popular textbook throughout the 16th century. His Tabulae eclypsium, probably completed in 1459, were also used for many years; the first printed edition appeared in 1514 in Vienna.
Peutinger, Konrad
(1465-1547) German humanist scholar
Between 1482 and 1488 Peutinger traveled in Italy, where he met politian and pico della mirandola, and became deeply imbued with the spirit of the Italian Renaissance. He remained in correspondence with his Italian teachers, published extracts from their lectures, and copied Pom-ponio Leto’s roman academy in the foundation of his So-dalitas Literaria Augustana in his native Augsburg. As town clerk of Augsburg (1497) Peutinger was on terms of friendship with Emperor Maximilian I. He published Roman inscriptions, and among his collection of antiquities was the map known as the Tabula peutingeriana, a 13th-century copy of the late Roman original depicting military roads, which he inherited (1508) from Konrad celtis.
pharmacopoeia
A standard list of drugs with information on their preparation and use. In antiquity scholars, of whom Dioscorides is the best known, produced materia medica devoted almost exclusively to the medicinal properties of plants. The tradition persisted throughout the medieval period with Albucasis, a 10th-century Arab physician and other scholars, adding to the classical heritage. Albucasis’s work, the Liber servatoris, first published in the West in 1471, became well known to Renaissance physicians. Thereafter the modern pharmacopoeias began to appear. Initially they began as local collections representing the medical wisdom of a particular area. The first appeared in Florence (1498) and was followed by similar items from Nuremberg (1546), Augsburg (1564), Cologne (1565), and London (1618). One feature of the pharmacopoeias was their growing willingness to accept the chemical remedies proposed by paracelsus and his followers. Thus, though absent from early issues of the Augsburg pharmacopoeia, they were introduced into the 1613 edition.
Philip II
(1527-1598) King of Spain (1556-98) He was born at Valladolid, the son of Emperor charles v and Isabella of Portugal. Philip’s first wife, Maria of Portugal, died in 1545. During his second marriage (1554-58), to mary i of England, he was joint sovereign of her realms. His third marriage, to Elizabeth of Valois (1559-68), produced two daughters. His heir, the ineffectual Philip III (1578-1621), was the only surviving son of his fourth marriage (1570-80), to Anne of Austria.
Even without the Hapsburg possessions in Germany, which went to Charles’s brother, ferdinand i, Philip inherited vast territories. He ruled Spain, Milan, Naples and Sicily, the Netherlands, and the New World territories of the Caribbean, Mexico, and Peru. In 1580 he annexed Portugal.
As a young man Philip traveled in Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands, but as king he preferred the semi-seclusion of El escorial, the palace he had built near Madrid (1563-84). From his study he used viceroys to govern his provinces. His officials were obliged to submit regular and exhaustive reports and to obey his detailed instructions. Philip’s ability to deal with up to 400 documents a day led one historian to describe him as the "arch bureaucrat."
Philip saw himself as a devout Catholic and a staunch opponent of both Turk and Protestant. At times he seemed to be trying to establish a Spanish Catholic hegemony over Europe. He and his allies checked the ottoman turks at lepanto (1571), but he enjoyed less success against the Protestants. The destruction of the spanish armada (1588) demonstrated his inability to subdue the English, and he failed to suppress the revolt of the netherlands. Yet, he was a leading force in the counter-reformation and did much to secure the Catholic faith in Italy, Spain, and Belgium.
Despite his reputation as the "most Catholic King," Philip was prepared to use the spanish inquisition not just as a weapon against heresy but also as an instrument of his royal power, as in the case of Antonio perez. He also did not hesitate to oppose papal policies that seemed hostile to the Hapsburg interests. An austere and dedicated ruler, Philip lived frugally, but he spent lavishly on the books and paintings he loved, continuing his father’s patronage of titian and Leone leoni. Juan fernandez de navarrete (El Mudo) was the king’s official painter from 1568, and after his death in 1579 Philip failed to take the opportunity to install El greco in the vacant post, turning instead to Federico zuccaro. When Zuccaro’s work for the Escorial failed to please him, Philip sent for Pellegrino tibaldi, who worked for him from 1588 to 1596. See Plate VII.
Philip Neri, St.
(1515-1595) Italian religious, founder of the Oratorians
The son of a lawyer in Florence, Neri abandoned an intended commercial career for a life of lay piety. After moving to Rome (1533), he tutored and lived an ascetic life. Neri then founded the Oratory in Rome, composed of like-minded laymen and clergy living together without vows for the purpose of prayer, fasting, and a more intense spiritual life. The Roman Oratory also organized help for Roman children, the sick, and pilgrims visiting the Holy City.
Neri’s was but one of several confraternities organized during the Catholic Reformation of the early-to-mid-16th century, and it lies at the heart of that movement. The Oratory used traditional medieval mystical texts, and its themes were joy and love. Neri’s prayer meetings were often accompanied by the music of his friend palestrina, and this gave birth to the "oratorio." Neri finally took priestly vows in 1551. He led afternoon excursions to Roman churches, music sessions, and picnics, practices censored by Pope Paul IV because the pope had been warned that Neri had formed a heterodox sect. However, Pius IV restored Neri’s reputation and he was allowed to build a new church on the site of Sta. Maria in Vallicella. In 1575 Gregory XIII recognized the Oratorians as a congregation. Neri’s most famous follower was Cesare baro-nius, and his advice was sought by such leading figures as ignatius loyola, charles borromeo, and francis de sales. He has been called the "Apostle of Rome." He died in Rome and was canonized in 1622.
Philip of Hesse (Philip the Magnanimous)
(1504-1567) Landgrave of Hesse (1509-67)
Philip assumed the government of Hesse at age 14 and quickly proved an able and energetic ruler. After prolonged study, he came down on the Lutheran side of the religious question in 1524 and a year later led the alliance of Lutheran princes that crushed the peasants’ revolt. In 1526-27 he created a state Lutheran Church in Hesse, converted monastic estates into hospitals for the insane (the first in recorded history), and established the first Protestant university at Marburg. Philip’s ambitious strategy was to unite the Protestant estates of north and east Germany against any threat from the Catholic south and the Holy Roman Emperor charles v. Aiming to end doctrinal divisions, he made an unsuccessful attempt to mediate between Lutherans and Zwinglians at the Colloquoy of marburg (1529). That same year Philip was the most prominent of those who rejected the decision of the second Diet of spires, which revoked the toleration of Lutheranism (see protestants). He was also the prime mover in the creation of the schmalkaldic league, a defensive alliance of Protestant rulers, in 1531. Although the league proved an effective block to Hapsburg aims in the 1530s, it fell into disunity after 1540, when Philip contracted a marriage that was generally considered bigamous. Charles V seized his moment to attack in 1546 and Philip had little choice but to capitulate, remaining a prisoner until 1555. He was restored to Hesse after the Peace of augsburg but never regained his position of regional leadership. He was succeeded by his son, william (iv) the wise.
Philips, Peter
(c. 1560-1628) English composer and organist
Philips sang in the choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral as a boy. In 1582 he fled to Rome because of his Catholicism, and was received there at the english college, of which he became organist. In 1585 Philips entered the service of Lord Thomas Paget, and in the next five years traveled through Italy, Spain, and France, settling in Brussels in 1589. On the death of Paget (1590) Philips moved to Antwerp. In 1593, returning from a visit to hear sweelinck play in Amsterdam, he was arrested on suspicion of being party to a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. He was released, and in 1597 entered the Brussels household of Archduke Albert, where he remained until the archduke’s death in 1621. Philips was probably the most famous English composer in northern Europe. His collections of madrigals and motets were reprinted many times in Antwerp; these are Roman in style, with Italianate word-painting and polyphony. Philips also wrote much keyboard music, some of which is preserved in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. This belongs to the English tradition, the most inventive pieces being those based on madrigals and chansons.
Philip the Bold (Philippe le Hardi)
(1342-1404) Duke of Burgundy (1363-1404) and count of Flanders (1384-1404)
The title of "the Bold" was given him for his conduct at the battle of Poitiers (1356), after which he accompanied his father, John II of France, into captivity in England. When the duke of Burgundy died without an heir, his domains reverted to the French crown, and John II granted the duchy to Philip in 1363. Philip’s domains were further enlarged through his marriage (1369) to Margaret, heiress of Flanders, Artois, and Franche-Comte. During the minority (1380-88) of his nephew, Charles VI of France, Philip was regent. When Charles went mad in 1392 Philip resumed the regency and, despite the rival claim of the duke of Orleans (Charles Vl’s brother), virtually ruled France until his death. He fought England and the Netherlands, and tried to heal the great schism within the Church. In 1383 Philip founded the Chartreuse de Champmol, Dijon, to be the burial place of the Burgun-dian ducal dynasty and hired the sculptor Claus sluter to adorn it.
Philip the Good (Philippe le Bon)
(1396-1467) Duke of Burgundy (1419-67)
Philip succeeded his assassinated father, John the Fearless. During his reign the Burgundian court was the most splendid in Europe and his domains enjoyed their greatest eminence and prosperity, but he failed to create a national state out of his inheritance. The splendor and chivalric aspirations of his court were most clearly expressed in his institution of the Order of the golden fleece (1429) to honor his marriage to Isabella of Portugal. Jan van eyck was the most famous of the artists associated with Philip’s court, and the composer Gilles de binchois was for many years attached to the ducal chapel. Philip was an ally of England from 1420 to 1435, recognizing Henry VI of England as king of France, but subsequently he supported the French king. When the dauphin, later Louis XI, fled (1456) from his father, Philip gave him asylum, and later recognized his accession (1461). Philip was much troubled by rebellions in the Netherlands, most notably in Ghent (1432, 1448, 1453).
Piagnoni (Italian, "Snivellers")
The derogatory name given to the most devout supporters of savonarola. See arrabbiati.
Piarists (Latin Regulares pauperes Matris Dei scholarum piarum)
A teaching order founded in Rome in 1602 by the Spanish priest (later St) Joseph Calasanctius (1556-1648). It grew from his work among the neglected and homeless children of the city, for whom he had set up a free elementary school in 1597. In 1621 Pope Gregory XV recognized the Piarists as an order, whose members took a vow to dedicate themselves to the teaching of children. It subsequently flourished in many parts of southern Europe and spread from Spain to Latin America.
Picaresque novel
In 16th- and 17th-century Spain, a popular realistic episodic narrative in autobiographical form relating the life of a rogue (ptcaro) in a corrupt world, with moral or religious reflections giving the final views of the repentant sinner. lazarillo de tormes (1554) established the model of lowlife first-person narrator, but typical picaresque novels are later in date, for ex ample guzman de alfarache (1599, 1604) by Mateo aleman, the earliest, and El Buscon (The Rogue; written 1603-08, published 1626) by Francisco Gomez de Quevedo y Villegas (1580-1645), perhaps the most brilliant and malicious of the type. Others are La picara Justina (1605), with a female protagonist, Marcos de Obregon (1618), Alonso, mozo de muchos amos (Alonso, Servant of Many Masters; 1624-26) by Jeronimo Alcala Yanez, and Estebanillo Gonzdlez (1646), an apparently genuine autobiography set in the Thirty Years’ War, after which the vogue for the picaresque died out. Two of cer-vantes’s Novelas ejemplares, Rinconete y Cortadillo and La ilustre fregona (The Illustrious Kitchenmaid; both 1613) are shorter examples. The picaresque represents a reaction against idealized chivalric literature. There is no reason to discount the moral content of the novels, however, as merely a means to appease the censor.
A forerunner of the picaresque novel in England was The Unfortunate Traveller (1594) by Thomas nashe.
Piccinino, Niccolo
(1386-1444) Italian condottiere Born near Perugia, Piccinino took up the profession of mercenary to escape from following his father’s trade as a butcher. In 1424, on the death of his commander, Pic-cinino assumed leadership of the band, selling their services first to Florence and then (1426) to Duke Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan. His ambitions and his military prowess however soon alarmed his employer, who sought to win Francesco Sforza, at that time commander of Venice’s forces and a personal enemy of Piccinino, over to his side. The uneasy relationship between the Milanese duke and the two condottieri on whom, in their different ways, he relied continued throughout the 1430s, but in 1443 Sforza resoundingly defeated Piccinino in battle. Pic-cinino died of dropsy the following year.
Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni
(1463-1494) Italian philosopher and humanist
The nephew of Marsilio ficino, he was born at Mirandola near Modena. He studied law at Bologna but found these studies unsatisfying and at age 18 traveled extensively in France and Italy, accumulating a large library and acquiring a wide range of knowledge sacred and profane, which his prodigious memory made readily accessible. In 1486 he arrived in Rome and proposed 900 theses or propositions, dealing, as he said, "de omni re scibili" (with everything knowable), inviting all comers to debate them with him and offering to pay their traveling expenses if poverty prevented their taking up the challenge. However, Pope Innocent VIII intervened by a Bull in 1487 to prevent the discussion. Thirteen of the theses were singled out and condemned as heretical. Pico withdrew to Florence and defended himself in an Apology (1489) but the attacks continued until Alexander VI absolved him of the taint of heresy and protected him from further persecution. Under the influence of savonarola, Pico adopted a life of austere piety and died of fever at age 31.
Like so many Renaissance philosophers Pico sought to reconcile theology and philosophy. He approached the problem through a variety of avenues, notably the study of the cabbala, in which he believed he had found the quintessential truth that would harmonize the Scriptures and secular philosophy. A graphic description of the impact of Pico’s personality on contemporaries comes from polit-ian, who described him as "the Phoenix of the wits." Pico’s biography was written by his nephew Giovanni and translated into English (c. 1510) by Sir Thomas More.
Pienza
The model Renaissance city created out of the rebuilding of the village of Corsignano, near Siena, birthplace of Pope pius ii. The pope initiated the project in 1459, with Bernardo rossellino as architect in charge. In 1462 the town’s name was changed from Corsignano to Pienza by papal Bull. The main piazza was handsomely constructed in Florentine style and a grid of streets was also laid out, the earliest Renaissance example of symmetrical town planning. The deaths of both pope and architect in 1464 brought work at Pienza to an end before more than a few houses could be built. Nonetheless the Palazzo Piccolomini, begun in 1460, is considered to be Ros-sellino’s masterpiece; other notable buildings from this period are the cathedral, the Palazzo Communale, and the Palazzo Vescovile.
Pierino da Vinci
(c. 1530-c. 1554) Italian sculptor and silversmith
Born at Vinci, the nephew of leonardo da vinci, Pierino attended the academy of bandinelli in Florence from age 12 and was a pupil of Niccolo tribolo. He then spent a year in Rome before moving to Pisa. His work illustrated the influence of michelangelo on composition in sculpture; with this influence he combined an engaging tender quality typical of Tuscan art. A number of his sculptures can be seen in the palaces of Florence and there are also examples in European museums. He died of a fever in his mid-twenties.
Pierino del Vaga (Pietro Buonaccorsi)
(c. 1501-1547) Italian painter
Born near Florence, he lost his indigent parents when young and was put under the protection of an artisan named Andrea de’ Ceri. After studying under Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, he adopted the name of Pierino del Vaga and went to Rome. In Rome he worked under raphael with giulio romano and others executing designs in the Vatican, and after Raphael’s death he was among those employed to finish these works. According to vasari he was very highly regarded as a designer. He fled to Genoa after the Sack of Rome (1527) and worked there on the decoration of the Palazzo Doria. Returning to Rome (1540) he was put in charge of decorative schemes in the Vatican and Castel San Angelo.
Piero della Francesca
(1410/20-1492) Italian painter Piero was born the son of a shoemaker at Borgo San Se-polcro, with which he maintained a lifelong connection and where he eventually died. In 1439 he is recorded as assisting domenico veneziano on the frescoes of Sant’ Egidio in Florence (now destroyed). He returned to his birthplace in 1442, was made a councilor there, and in 1445 was commissioned to paint the Madonna della Mis-ericordia polyptych (Palazzo Communale, Borgo San Se-polcro), which apparently shows the influence of masaccio. His Baptism of Christ (National Gallery, London) probably dates from this time or a little later, and he also worked in Ferrara for the Este family before going to Rimini to paint a fresco in the tempio malatestiana, showing Sigismondo malatesta kneeling before his patron saint (1451). There he met and was deeply influenced by alberti, whose interest in perspective and architectural practice is reflected in many of Piero’s later paintings; notable among these is the Flagellation of Christ (c. 1457; Palazzo Ducale, Urbino), with its enigmatic foreground figures and complex mathematical construction.
The work generally acclaimed as Piero’s masterpiece is the fresco cycle of the Legend of the True Cross in the church of San Francesco at Arezzo (c. 1452-c. 1464). These frescoes show Piero’s skill in handling a range of scenes and emotions from the pathos of the dying Adam to the drama of the discovery of the True Cross, from the motionless figures of the dream of Constantine to the hectic action of Heraclius’s victory over Chosroes. During this period Piero also worked in the Vatican on frescoes (later painted over by Raphael) and painted the Madonna del Parto for the cemetery chapel of Monterchi (his mother’s birthplace). In the late 1460s he painted the portraits in profile of Federico da Montefeltro of Urbino and his wife, Battista Sforza, in a diptych on the reverse of which are allegorical "triumphs" (Uffizi, Florence). For Borgo San Se-polcro in the same period he painted the powerful and moving Resurrection (Palazzo Communale), one of his finest works, and the now dismembered polyptych for the high altar of the church of Sant’ Agostino (panels in Lisbon, Milan, London, and New York).
From about 1470 Piero’s vigor as an artist began to decline, perhaps on account of failing eyesight. His latest commission from Federico da Montefeltro, an altarpiece depicting the duke adoring the Madonna and Child with saints and angels (Brera, Milan) shows his skill at depicting imposing and solemn figures in an opulent architectural setting, but increasingly Piero’s later work relied upon the help of assistants. His interest in the mathematical aspects of aesthetic theory was set down in treatises from his last years. De prospettiva pingendi, dedicated to Federico da Montefeltro, was written sometime before 1482 and an autograph manuscript in Italian survives in Parma; a Latin version, with autograph notes by Piero, is in Milan. His other works, one in Italian on geometry and arithmetic and the other in Latin on the five regular solids, survive in Florence and the Vatican in autograph or partially autograph form.
Piero di Cosimo
(1462-c. 1521) Italian artist A native of Florence, Piero was born Piero di Lorenzo but later assumed the Christian name of Cosimo rosselli, of whom he was a pupil. In about 1481 he was assisting Rosselli with the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. Piero’s early conventional religious scenes show the influence of Botticelli and Ghirlandaio, but subsequent works owe more to the style of Signorelli and Leonardo da Vinci. Piero was renowned for his unconventional character, and his eccentricity expressed itself most clearly in the mythological paintings for which he is best known. Such works as The Discovery of Honey (c. 1500; Worcester, Mass.), The Battle of the Centaurs and the Lapiths (1486; National Gallery, London), and A Forest Fire (c. 1486; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, U.K.) bear witness to Piero’s taste for the bizarre and idiosyncratic with their depictions of distorted humans and wild animals. His masterpiece, The Death of Procris (c. 1490-1500; National Gallery, London), combines a sense of tenderness with elements of both mythology and natural detail. Other works include such portraits as the head-and-shoulders of Simonetta Vespucci (c. 1498; Musee Conde, Chantilly). Piero was a recluse in his later years, often painting purely for his own pleasure. His pupils included andrea del sarto.
